NHTSA Says Tesla Made False Safety Claims

Tesla was sent a cease-and-decist letter last year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to stop the automaker’s claims regarding the safety of the Model 3.

The agency said Tesla made “misleading statements” in a blog post that said NHTSA tests showed the Model 3 has “the lowest probability of injury of all cars the safety agency has ever tested.”

NHTSA contends there is no “safest” ranking within its five-star ranking system for crash tests.

In a reply to the NHTSA, Tesla said it disagreed with the NHTSA’s assessment. 

“Telsla’s statement is neither untrue or misleading,” the reply said. “To the contrary, Tesla provided consumers with fair and objective information to compare the relative safety of vehicles having 5-star overall ratings.” 

Tesla said its statements were based on “actual test results and NHTSA’s own calculations for determining relative risk of injury and probability of injury.”

The NHTSA said in the letter that it had referred the matter to the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. 

The letter is available through legal research tool PlainSite

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